Anti dark times
by vamprav
Summary: Hera Olympia, teenager, dancer, darkness user,...vampire? Hera is the strongest vampire alive not counting the queen and has a special grudge against dragonriders. You don't want to get on her bad side. But when Chris rider returns from years of no one knows what her world flips upside down. What will happen when her past catches up to her? And what does a angel want with a vamp?
1. glossary

Angels: These are creatures with wings as white as snow. Some are able to use magic. These massocists feed off of human negativity. Most are also sadistic #!*% as well.

Vampires: The feed off of blood. The only ones that burn are the ones that are turned not born. Heart-beat. Breathing. Living things. Fangs. Batlike wings of vairying color. Almost all us magic and all can change into just one animal.

Demon: Feed off of energon. Look human.

Anti-dragons: Dragons possessed by anti-darkness. They have riders that have had their soul consumed.

Anti-darkness: A burning acid like liquid/vapory mist that causes a fever that will kill you if you don't get a light user to kill it. Somewhat sentient like bacteria.

Werebeasts: Lyconthropes that have lost their human half.

Lycanthropes: Werewolves, werecats, ect.

Energon: Lifeforce. The stuff that ties your soul to your body.

Shadow melding: The act of moving threw the shadow relm at high speed and reappearing in the human world.

Magic: The process of manipulating and using energon.

Witch/wizard: Magic users that require tools to work magic

Sorcerer/sorceress: type of witch/wizard that don't need tools

Mage: Use there own limited suply of energon to manipulate the elements - often die young

Sucker slug: Anti-dark creatures. Suck out magic. alergic to any type of light. lethal

Pegaus: Horses who were gifted with wings by shadow magic. Vampire steads.

Unicorns: Horses with one horn that suck the energon from the earth they trod on and can kill a forest just by being there. The Angels use them as bad temperred mounts.

Shadonary: a shade that has been converted into an anti-dark shade and then fusses to a person plant or animal


	2. chapter 1- New Arrival

Character:

Protagonist: **Hera Olympia Vampeera: **Protective. Loyal. Holds a grudge. Strong hearted. Temperamental. Pro-combat. Independent. Fatal flaw: doesn't curb temper well.

Antagonist: **Light Coralyn Monthare: **prideful. Hard headed. Hates night time. Soft hearted when it comes to flowers and plants. Loves animals. Hates vampires because they make him scared. Falls in love with Hera at the end of the first book. Would do anything to protect Hera. Fatal Flaw: trusts too easily.

Other main characters: **Chris Rider: **Former Rider. Mysterious. No one knows much about him except for a girl named Gwen who hasn't been seen for the last seven year and has been declared dead. Is clueless. Loyal. Couldn't kill a dragon even if he wanted to. Not that powerful. Confident. Fatal flaw: believes he's always right.

Anti-dark Times.

Prologue

The first thing that told the boy that he wasn't dead was cold. It was so piercingly bone chillingly cold it made him whimper.

Then the pain squirmed its way into his brain and he moaned and opened his eyes to see a girl standing in the edge of a cops of trees. Her hair was black as night with an uneven ruff edge and her eyes were a blazing golden orange. She looked startled as she stood there in her tight jeans, black trench coat, and combat boats.

The girl took a step forward and hesitated for a second then ran forward, took off her coat, and draped it over the boy's torn clothes. It was a thick winter coat but it was supposed to be summer.

The boy glanced around and realized why he was so cold. It was a moon lit night and it was snowing gently in the clearing where he apparently was. He was in a forest next to a pool that wasn't frozen over like it should have been at that time of year, if it was winter and not summer like he remembered. The boy's head was starting to hurt so he closed his eyes to shut out the moon's glaringly bright light.

"Hey! I'm not carrying you all the way back to the coven so wake up!" The girl sounded pissed to him. The boy opened his eyes to glare at her and realized something, she was smiling and she had a set of fangs.

"Sh-shit. You're a vamp." The boy murmured threw chattering teeth. The girl snorted and helped him to his feet. He couldn't exactly walk but he managed an acquired shuffling gate.

"I'm Hera by the way. Why are you out here at midwinter anyway?" the girl inquired. The boy almost fell over at that last statement. Hera caught him before he hit the ground and held him for a second. She was so warm and it felt so nice.

"Midwinter? It was summer last time I checked." The boy whispered into Hera's arm. Hera frowned and bit her lip as the boy went limp in her arms.

It was clear to her that the boy had lost his memory but he was a dragon rider -she'd seen the dragon's mark on the inside of his wrist. It was dull and didn't give off that murky aura the rest of them had which meant his dragon was dead.

This meant one less of those abominations to worry about. The boy should be relatively safe to be around but Hera didn't like to take chances with the safety of the covens, any of the covens. Hera weighed the options and then made a snap decision. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a cellphone. Hera dialed a number and held the phone to her ear.

"Hey, Tyler, we have a problem."

* * *

"So they found that little tidbit." The man on the golden throne that was bathed in light muttered. He was almost painfully golden blonde with shining sea blue eyes. He had his head in one hand and he was smiling with pearl white teeth.

"Now little demon where is the dragon turned?" The man asked. There was a red haired girl of about thirteen lying on the golden carpet of the throne room and she raised her head to look at him. The girl had a black eye, split lip, and a bloody nose.

"Go fuck yourself." She spat at him. The two white haired girl on eighth side of her both kicked her. The demon spat up blood onto the carpet.

"Fine. Hera, will put you in the hospital for months after I tell you this. Gwen fell off a cliff seven years ago. We never found the body." The demon stopped talking to cough.

The man on the throne gesture and the two girls banged the demon's head into the floor. "This I know!" the man yelled at her. The demon grinned up at him and got on her knees.

"Yeah but you don't know this. The next day Hera shows up soaking wet from head to black boots. No one had any idea who she was. She had this wrist band she had torn a jewel out of. It had these weird patterns on it, they looked like vines mixed with fire and shadows. The thing gave off this weird aura. You know the kind, smoky rotten meat smelling mixed with the taste of metal. She said she'd found it, but I knew better. Hera's mystery bracelet had tried to join to her aura at some point. Must've hurt like all fuck to have it ripped off like it had to have been. Funny thing is the bracelet had Gwen's aura inside that murky anti mist. Happy now, King Sunlight?"

By the end of the speech the demon was breathing hard. The man on the throne smiled and waved his hand in the air. "Take her away."

The instant the order was given the demon's head was ripped of her shoulder and she was dragged away. The king crosses arms and closes his eyes. "Lovelly now there's a giant red blood spot on the carpet." He muttered.

He sighed and leaned back into the thrown. "Find this Hera and bring her to us." A voice said from the light above his head.

Chapter 1

I stared down at the boy on the cot in the infirmary.

"You're sure it's him?" I asked my best friend. She was a nice girl with brown hair and black eyes. She was also a medic and fallowed me everywhere I went.

This is useful if you're me and everyone hates your guts because you're the strongest vampire this side of the afterlife. I didn't ask to be a vampire. I rubbed the two tiny little scars on my neck and looked at my friend.

"Yes, I'm sure!" I winced at that. Excitement permeated Zanthia's voice. "The color and dullness of the mark confirms it! This is Chris Rider the last of the true dragon riders! If we can get him on our side it could change the name of the game! We could actually win this war!"

I tensed and kicked a chair across the room. I didn't like being reminded that a _rider_ could help us more than we could help ourselves. "What war, and where's Gwen?" Chris said and I looked down to see him awake.

I hissed in his face, fangs at full length and mouth open. His eyes went wide with fear and I knew I'd won that fight instantly. "The girl you call Gwen was declared dead almost a year ago! She was our last hope and now she's gone! What you got to say to that, Chris Rider?!" I growled and turned away.

I started to walk away as the shadows of the room gathered around me. "Where are you going?" Zanthia asked.

I turned when I reached the door and raised the shadows. Chris's jaw dropped and I let the power out. It crashed through the doors and slashed at the empty beds, destroying them both. I fell to my knees and began to breathe heavily, I'd forgotten how much it took out of me to stop my power.

Slowly I got to my feet and leaned against the wall. Zanthia was there in a second. I caught my breathe and growled threw my fangs at her.

It felt good. Letting the rage and hate out always felt good or at least it never felt bad. When you've been rejected, left behind, lose hope, and have been beaten half-way to hell there are only one of two things you can be. You can either be broken down to the point of no return or you can get utterly pissed off at everything in existance.

Zanthia backed off and Chris whistled, I had the almost irisistable urge to kill him right then.

"The war involves your kind and my kind and a few angels thrown in for good measure. Ran wants us dead as mayflys on day four and she will stop at nothing to kill us all so the anti can live forever without us to beat it back." My voice had gone low and angry by the end of that sentence. I turned around as the tiniest squib of flame escaped my lips and I ran right into the leader of our coven, Eric.

"Eric! Is that you?" Chris said and tried to stand and failed by the sound of it.

I turned around and was picking Chris up by the shirt front in the space of one eye blink. Controlling my need to throw him across the room I gently set him down on the bed and retreated into a corner.

Why were all my emotions acting up all of a sudden? I knew Chris was a rider but he wasn't anti dark at all and he wanted to help find Gwen, I could sense it on him. It smelled like a layer of fresh bread and chocolate over his dragon rider musk.

The fire in my stomach wanted out of my body and it wanted out right now.

"HERA!" I looked up at the shout. Eric was standing in front of me arms crossed and I growled while forcing my power back into the container I kept it in. "Why is there a dragon rider in my infirmary? I don't care that he's Chris." Eric said.

I saw red for ten seconds and punched him in the stomach which sent him flying across the room. I was pissed off as usual but wasn't able to curb it like usual. What had changed? I looked across the room at Chris who was staring open mouthed at me. Ofcourse.

Chris was a dragon rider and dragon riders were not my favorite subject at the moment. My sister was missing and I was worried as well as pissed at everyone who had put me in this gods' damned position.

"Look I don't like it either, but we need help and fast. Some of the other covens are reporting angel raiding squads and dragon attacks. If we don't want to end up like the mountain covens we need inside info on dragon riders. I may know a couple of tips on how to kill them but I don't know it all." I said as I edged up the wall. All my power was contained and I was able to move again without losing control.

Eric stumbled upright and glared at me. But he knew why I'd punched him so hard, he didn't push it. "I see your point." He said and walked over to sit down on the edge of Chris's cot. It sank in slightly with a faint _creeeeaaak _and Zanthia went to stand next to him.

He turned to face Chris and I pulled up the only undamaged chair in the room. I leaned it against the wall and settled in for a good nap. "What's the last thing you remember from before Hera found you?" Eric asked. I sat up and watched Chris's face, I was too curious for my own good.

My emotionless stare scares the crap out of most vampires and even some of the weaker, younger dragon riders. Chris Rider who was a non-active dragon rider without much magic, was cold, hungry, and out of his depth, wasn't hard to scare into talking. He leaned away from me looking nervous.

"All I remember is falling asleep a week after Saffron died. I was planning on leaving the next morning." Chris said.

I stood up fast as my wings tore from my back and I scrambled away as I felt my bones shift as fast as possible. Soon I was running on all fours towards the door. I jumped on to the railing of the court yard and lauched myself into the air and threw the sky light into the trees. Our base was under the ground so we could hide from the angels better. My wings flapped hard as I slowly decended to the forest floor.

The instant my legs touched the ground I launched myself along the paths I'd made while running through the woods a hundred times before. My muscles strained as I placed paw in front of paw as fast as possible and my raging fury moved itself all the way from my wet nose to my windy carcoal colored pelt all the way to my white tipped tail. I forgot myself in the sensation of the wind running threw my fur.

Then I heard the sound of wing beats and I whirled around gritting my fangs and keeping low to the ground. But it was only Zanthia riding on her black pegasaus Dark Moon. "May I?" She asked. I whirled around and continued to run down the path with the sound of a horse's hooves fallowing me.

* * *

Chris sat on the bed mouth wide open as he stared after Hera. "Okay…." He muttered to himself. To him Hera looked like she had an extreme anger control problem and was having a bad day of it.

Eric sighed. "You'll get used to it. Hera has a special grudge against dragon riders for some reason we've never gotten out of her, yet. You've got a lot of catching up to do." He said and patted Chris's leg. Eric gently stood up and placed his hands on his hips.

"You just focus on recovering." He said and picked up Hera's chair without touching it. He sat down on said chair and started to explain what was happening.

"After you left Gwen disappeared a month later and the anti-darkness rose. Ran showed up and the dragon's started to go bad. They found riders for themselves and consumed their inner fire. Hera showed up the day after Gwen disappeared and helped us out of a few sticky situations. That's when the angels started to come after us. We've never been on particularly good terms with those sadistic bastards but after Gwen disappeared it got worst. They and the dragon riders are after us with hunting on their minds. We're sort of in perminent hiding now. All the above ground covens have been destroyed." Eric stopped as if remembering something extremely unpleasant.

He gritted his teeth and his fangs extended to their full length as his eyes turned from green to pure crimson red. The pieces of broken wood in the room started to levitate a foot off the floor. "I'll crush them for what they did to Zanth and Hera." Eric's voice was low and guteral like a big cat's would be if they spoke English.

Then he closed his eyes and took a deep breathe. His teeth retracted and his eyes turned back to green. The pieces of furniture crashed to the floor and Eric looked at the mess around them.

"Sorry, about that, my beast came out for a second there." He said and got up. "I should go check up on the girls. Knowing Hera they'll be running in the woods and getting into trouble." Eric started to walk towards the doorway.

As he reached it a girl ran into the room. She had blackish brown eyes, sun blonde hair, and a cheerful looking face, now turned down in sorrow. She wore jeans and an extremely short green spigety strap dress that looked like it was made of cotton. The girl stopped short gaping at Chris who was sitting on the bed. Eric cleared his throat and the girl jumped to attention in front of him.

"We found the oracle." She said. Eric's eyes went wide for a second and then he drew himself up so that he looked like a king or tribe leader or a vampeer.

"Bring her to me then." He commanded. The girl cringed and bit her lip trying to shrink in on herself as she thought up a reply. She looked down and turned her head so that her neck was exposed to Eric's face, the vampire sign of submission. The girl was shivering in terror as she opened her mouth to give Eric some really bad news.

"Sh-she's dead. We found her body on the edge of the forest but her head was in a pond with a cloth wrapped around it and an angel's feather was on a rock nearby." She rushed out and started to shrink even more.

Eric let out a groan and sagged as the information sank in. Chris's stumach rebelled against him and the contence of his stumach came up and out.

"Hera is going to rip my spine out of my back and beat me over the head with it while setting my skin on fire. Go find her and don't tell her yet, I don't want to have to bury another vampire, or a lycanthrope for that matter." Eric said. He rubbed his temples as a compound headache started to kick in.

The girl nodded and bowed bouncily before she ran for it. There was a very hyped up scream and then a low growl. "Why do you smell like her blood?" Hera's low angry tone came through the door.

There was the sound of a low whimper and Eric was gone in a flash. "HERA, NO!" He shouted. There was the sound of a slight scuffle and then the sound of someone being rammed against a wall. Hera screamed in furry and was hissing and spitting with rage.

"HERA OLYMPIA, CALM DOWN! NOW! ASH WAS DEAD WHEN THEY GOT THERE!" Eric screamed over Hera's hystarics. Hera's struggling stopped instantly and there was the sound of faint sobbing too high for it to be her's. That meant it had to be the blonde girl and she was getting hystarical.

"Who?" Hera's voice seemed calm but that was deseptive. Chris had experience with that particular tone and it never boded well for everyone involved. He sighed if he didn't tell her they were all dead but if he did Hera might end up dead.

"Angels. We found her body at the border." That was the last thing Chris heard before the shadows began to ripple threatiningly and edge towards the door.

Outside Hera was vibrating with anger as the shadows flowed into her black as night hair and her eyes grew darker. Eric backed up a bit and let go of Hera's throat. "Everyone take cover, NOW!" He yelled.

* * *

The shadows called to me asking me for penance against one of my own flesh and blood being killed. I growled deep down in my throat, an angry rumble that could be sated only by the spill of fresh angel blood.

My hair turned from deepest ebony to the blackness of midnight to the even deeper black of a closed celer without any inside light. I knew my eyes were going from yellow to amber to dark brown. I knew my eyes were finally settling on the same shade of my hair, I could feel it.

_"Darker than dark, blacker than black. I am shadow within shadows. I am you and you are me. I live inside of you all and you live inside of me." _Words flew from my mouth faster than a human's ear could catch.

I'd only used them once before after I'd turned and found my friend gone. That had been my first encounter with angels and they hadn't enjoyed it too much.

It called all my power all at once and turned it into pure strength.

Eric barked something at all the vampires staring at me and the pure black aura curling around my body in a whirlwind. It gave off no wind just pure cool dark shadow and the tiniest hint of purest anger.

Everyone scampered out of my sightline and my shadows lifted me towards the skylight. I stepped off and into the forest when we reached the top.

My sister's soul found me as I walked through the woods and she twined herself around me joining herself to my energy with a sigh of contentment. I felt my black hair lighten in a place as she settled and I brought the offending strip of hair in front of my eyes. It was pure crimson red and darkening in color as I watched.

I let go as her soul fully absorbed into the shadows to feed for the travel to Silver's village. I crouched slowly like I was going to go wolf and then I pushed off of the tree root I was standing on. I let my shadows swallow me and I was suddenly on the plains.

There was an angel in the sky and my shadow's shot her down as I slowly strode forward as calmly as possible to keep my other power hidden inside. If I used _that_ then I'd be _sooo_ dead.

The angel cytidel was close by I remembered the feel of it's walls from a long time ago, it was like a phycic stain on the landscape that poked at me. I'd only been there once before but even though I had been newly turned at the time I knew the lay out like I knew my own powers.

I approached the front gate and leaped up to the top causing the guards to scream in terror as I spread my wings and roared at them.

* * *

Light took his cheek out of his pulm surprised by the sound. His hair was short and golden like wheat and his eyes were like an ocean on a cloudless day.

"What was that?" he asked. He'd heard that sound before. But no it couldn't be _her_, it was just too unlikely for words.

"Vampire." His sister Shade muttered as she drifted towards the door. Light stood and got there before she did.

"You stay here, prince. I'll take care of this you can't do anything about it." She said as Light swept through the door and started to run.

He was desperate for information. That scream was one of a supremely pissed off vampire trying to protect something dear to them. Light had heard that scream only once before and the vampire in question had killed ten of his best men.

The hallway was extremely long and the door was kicked in when Light was only halfway there. He stopped when two of the guards dead bodies was thrown though the door and a girl was standing in the doorway. Her hair was black as a dark cellar and her eyes were like pure obsidian.

"Who the hell are you?" the girl asked. Her voice was slick and smooth with anger. Washes of anger and shadow seeped into the hallway as she advanced towards Light with her face plastered into a frown.

"I am Light. I'm a … human." Light said. Suddenly the girl was in front of him with one hand on his cheek and she looked sad behond belief.

"They must have captured you when you were extremely young." She muttered. Her eyes faded to brown to amber and finally to a deep wolfish yellow orange color. Her hair faded to a nice ebony color and Light almost fell over in amazement.

It was the girl he'd met years ago. Good grief if she used her nose Light was dead.

But before she could even think about it he grabbed her around the shoulders and hugged her, hard. Then the girl fainted against him, disaster averted. Light remembered it happening this way before and shivered at the memory:

_ The girl in the meadow was sobbing in anger and pain. Her feathered wings were covered in blood from when they'd popped threw the skin of her back. But under all that blood her wings were as black as the purest of nights and greyish mist swirled around her body._

_The little blonde boy with blue eyes stood at the edge of the woods looking scared. He'd never seen what was happening now before and the sight of angel wings ammerging from the flesh of a girl's back._

_He'd never seen black wings on an angel before either, maybe this was what they looked like before the first feeding? The boy doutted it though. For one the girl had fangs and for another he'd seen her drain the dear that now lay on the other side of the clearing._

_Slowly he took a step into the moonlight and another and another until he stood in front of the girl. "Are you okay?" The boy asked. The girl looked up and started to get to her feet._

_The boy stumbled and fell over, the girl had yellow eyes! "I think so." The girl muttered and fell over onto the boys lap. She tried to get off but winced in pain. "Don't move. I'll get some water." The boy said and scrambled for the stream._

_The girl moved like lighting and had the boy on the ground in a second. Her lips were pulled back to reveal fangs and the boy froze under her. "Don't run like that or I'll bite you." The girl said and her head reared back._

_Her fangs sank deep into the boy's neck when she brought her mouth down to the boy's throat._

Light smiled at the girl a little surprised that the one happy childhood memory that he had. Shade came running up to him and smacked his head. "You idiot, Light! Don't do that again! She could have killed you!"


	3. Chapter 2 - Prisoner

Chapter 2

My head hurt like nobody's business. I took a deep breath and gagged as I opened my eyes wide with disgust.

I flipped over onto my side and my stomach decided it didn't like the smell and was going to rebel. Where ever I was it smelled like daylight, blood, pain, metal, and the sharp tang of pepper mixed with cinnamon.

Oh, Silver, help me I was in the angel citadel.

I looked around to pin point exactly where in the angel's capital I was. The floor and walls were made of cobble stone, okay I was in one of the older parts of the citadel. The door was made of metal bars and from a touch I knew they were coated in holly water.

I yelped and pulled my hand back to stick my index finger in my mouth to take the burn away. No good there it still stung.

Okay I was in a prison cell but what type of prison cell was the real question. I turned searching for a window. There was no window. Okay below ground then. There were only two types of cell bellow the ground at the angel citadel.

I looked at the bed. It hung by two chains that were attached to the wall, it was pretty much flat wood, and it had a straw pallet laid on top of it. Okay not a feeder cell then that was good. But it was still a prison cell and that wasn't good.

How had I gotten myself caught? Well that was obvious I'd gotten careless and let my guard down. But how had they caught me? I'd fainted but before that a human had grabbed me.

He'd smelled like angel but the entire place smelled of angel and humans were so rare these days I hadn't bothered to try and check for wings or anything. I was relying too much on my super senses instead of using common sense to my advantage.

That was a fledgling mistake, I really shouldn't have made it at this age. Heck I shouldn't have come here in the first place. Damn my temper to seventh circle of hell!

I strode over to the bed and set down. It was all Chris Rider's fault, his dragon rider's musk caused me to forget myself and go a bit insane. Then again that happened around all the dragon riders I'd ever met and they were all pretty much dead.

Chris was the only one I'd ever not killed on sight, now I wished I had. My dad did always say I was too compassionate for my own good. That was why Ran was loose, it was all my fault, if I'd killed her back then this wouldn't be happening now.

"Stop dwelling on the past and focus on now." I muttered to myself. I looked at my feet as I fought back more bile, the place stank worse than a dragon's dung heap.

I'd tended dragons before in the city that was destroyed and the scent of a dragon with diarrhea sticks with you no matter what happens to me. I still had that long gash on my back from a first clutch dragon female that had laying rash from her first egg. She'd flung me a good ten feet in the air and I'd landed in another dragon's pile. I stank for weeks before I could get all the stuff out of my hair, my clothes had to be thrown out.

Well at least I was in the warm embrace of the earth even if the thrum of the soils energon was faint. The life of the planet beet against me as I let myself look through the shadows in the ground. If I could just get out far… enough… I could… send a… shadow construct.

I sighed. It was no use everyone was too far away with me this week. I needed to feed, all the blood I'd drunk at twilight was currently on the floor and I was not drinking my own vomit.

I was _so_ not going there, yet. I've drunk my own … never mind, TMI. Forget I ever started the sentence, let's just say I was starving and desperate as well as a new fledgling.

There was a clatter as someone came down the dungeon steps and I pressed against the wall growling. "Shade, I'll be fine she won't hurt me! I don't have two giant wings on my back proclaiming what I am to the entire universe!" I heard the human's voice say. He sounded exasperated with this 'Shade' person.

The guy had probably been completely brainwashed, wouldn't hurt him pft. I would do whatever it took to get out of this place that meant death for most of my kind and worse for others. Light rounded the corner shaking his head and smiling like he was sharing a joke.

The smile was fake though and I could smell the sadness on him. I shifted into my wolf form and crouched while still growling in fury. Then I saw it. Light wasn't human.

Light looked at me with that shining blonde mane and those azure colored eyes so much like the sky, and I knew. He had a look of pure hunger in those eyes. The hunger wasn't lust like you would expect for any male of any species to have, it was darker than that, more primal than lust deeper than an ocean and more ancient than eyes.

"Who are you?" Light asked. I took a deep breath and shifted back into human shape so that he would understand my words.

"Hera." That one word changed everything. The one word I should have never told him and the only one I could have spoken. Light deserved to know my name, he was going to be feeding off of me after all. He would suckle on my anger like he was half starved and I was the only food he'd seen in weeks.

Slowly as not to alarm them into killing them I let my shadow stretch out and slide under his shirt to feel his back. My eyes went wide with shock and I screamed. I swept my wings forward to hide myself from them.

Yeah, we were all totally and completely dead. This wasn't possible. It had never happened before. If he was a Halfling then his wings could be hiding but they weren't. No, no I had to be wrong. Light was a full blooded angel, now that the battle fury was gone I could tell. This could not be happening. It was inconceivable, impossible. I ran my shadow up again and then down, searching for what was not there over and over. I double checked again and again but the fact was still true.

There were no marks or scars on his back that would make it even slightly possible but what wasn't there was blaring out at me. This angel had no wings. I started to breathe hard when I couldn't run from the fact anymore. I was going to die in here and everyone else was going to die as well.

This was dangerous, deadly even. It would confuse the vampires but even worse it would condemn the other supernatural creatures to death, or worst torture by angels. I started to shake the lycanthropes would try to save him thinking he was a Halfling and the demons wouldn't even realize he even had angel blood in him. Sometimes the demons naïve about who was what was useful but other times it put them in real dangerous.

"Oh my, Gold! HER WINGS! HER WINGS!" I heard Shade scream. Looking up and sweeping my massive wings back I stared at the two angels. Shade was backed against the wall in terror and Light's jaw was a bit loose as he crouched on the outside of my cell to stare directly into my eyes. He got a hold of himself and smiled at me.

"You're a misfit, too. Aren't you?" Light asked. Slowly I refolded my wings and let them sink back into my skin. It hurt to have them there but it was better than breaking one. Light stuck his hand threw the bars to my cell as if I was a feral dog in a cage and I sniffed the vein under his skin.

The blood smelled so very _good_ and it was so _very close_ to the surface of his skin. My fangs poked through my lips and I licked slowly along the vein. Light shivered while trying to draw back from my mouth and I grabbed his wrist. I pulled and Shade screamed in terror. I opened my mouth and sank my teeth deep into Light's wrist, striking like a fanged venomous snake.

Light drooped instantly in the ecstasy of the venom, I knew that I could instantly turn that pleasure to the worst of pains. I could always do that if someone grabbed me and they would stop because they would be hurting their master weapon.

"Holly sword of light!" I heard Light moaned to himself. I wasn't paying attention to the taste of his blood, I flat out ignored it and focused on my magical power. They wouldn't rise for another hour put I could still to small things.

I felt a slight tug from Shade grabbing Light and I channeled my magic into my fangs. Light screamed in agony, I felt pity for him. I'd experienced that pain first hand when I'd turned into a vampire and I didn't like using it against people I didn't hate. _'Shade! Let go, NOW!' _I yelled in my mind.

I didn't hate Light and I didn't like hurting innocents. I would if I had to but I hated it so badly that I'd rarely do it. Shade stopped tugging, I took one more pull, and let go. I liked my lips then Lights arm slowly and glared at Shade as I backed up even more slowly.

"Never interrupt a vampire when we feed. I could have killed him. I would have hated it but I would have done it anyways, as it was that pain won't leave him until I wish it to." I growled and snapped my fingers. Light sighed in relief and looked at me in confusion. I pointed at Shade, she tried to edge away from Light.

"Shade tried to pull my off or rather you away from me. I got a bit carried away." I said and shrugged. It wasn't like I had really hurt him in any way shape or form and I'd been too hungry to be pulled away without going a bit coo coo. I'd have hurt myself even more than I already had and then I would have probably killed someone to get the blood I'd have needed to survive.

There was a loud crack as a light whip went flying through the air and hit Shade across the back as hard as possible. Shade squealed and ran up the stairs. Shock filled my brain as Light lowered his arm and leaned against the cell door.

I watched him with interest and a bit of uncertainty. How could I be this much of an idiot to not notice the smell of daylight all over him?

UUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG GGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH! BRAIN I HATE YOU! Now that I could get my brain to comprehend what he was I could see it in him and smell it in the air around him.

An angel with light magic and a vampire with the shadows and other things running threw her blood, total opposites. Great, just perfect. "What do you have in those fangs of yours?" Light asked as he pulled himself up.

I stood as fast as possible and sent a shadowy construct message threw the earth to my friends as I slammed myself down into the shadows. I reappeared behind Light and ran for the stairs.

Light caught me with his magic and pulled me back to him. I'd known I wouldn't escape from the dungeon, I was testing him with my power. I had to know my limits against him and his limits against me.

I was going to make a statement when I escaped from this place this wasn't me escaping, this was me toying with them. I threw magic at him and he blocked it to throw it back at me. This caused him to loosen his grip on my body. I laughed and spun out of the magic with a smile on my face. I was still semi pissed but not at Light.

"No proper training at all!" I said as I bent over still laughing and absorbed my power back under my skin. Light stared mouth open and I smiled at him. I twirled in a circle when he tried to grab me again, then he used his arms to grab me around the waist. I squirmed and shadow melded back into the cell where I could laugh in piece.

"Don't you know any proper spells?" I asked and leaned against the back wall. Yes I was being a self-righteous brat and no I didn't care about his magical power's type. All I wanted to do was evaluate his dangerousness to my coven or our lycanthrope friends. I'd escape sure enough, later.


	4. Chapter 3 - A Quick Side Track Setion

Chapter 3

-Normal paragraphs lots of dialogue-

"I'm sorry about earlier." Chris apologized. He was sitting on a log next to an annoyed Eric. The clothes he wore weren't exactly silk robes but they'd do.

Chris had been traveling a lot so he was used to the simple wool shirt that was most definitely very black and the cotton pants that looked like they were brown once but they were now a faint grey.

Eric had told him that they were actually Chris's own clothes that they had found in one of his stashes. To Chris they still smelled like Gwen and peace and Saffron and better days were laughter came easy.

"No. Don't apologize. It was Tyler's fault anyway –Hera warned him not to blow his last chance- and Zanth or I would have done the same after he made that … particular comment about Hera." Eric said. Tyler was a seventeen year old werewolf who had made a very rude comment about Hera's body.

Chris had shot quite a large fireball at him and Tyler was now in intensive care. Unfortunately for him Zanthia was in charge of the intensive care unit –along with the rest of the infirmary- and was finding the most painful ways possible to heal him.

"It's just-" Chris stopped mid-sentence to bite his lip. He seemed to be lost in thought.

"Just what, Chris?" Eric asked as he stared up at the clear blue sky. He closed his eyes slowly as he recalled the shadow construct Hera had sent. It had told them not to worry and then vanished.

She was being a reckless idiot just like always. But then again she probably needed to calm down a bit before she got back to the coven.

"It's just that-" Chris paused. He hesitated and then plunged on. "Hera reminds me of Gwen. The hairs the same jaggedly cut as if by a knife, their faces are almost identical, they wear the same type of clothes too, and her eyes have that same fire to them. Hell, they even smell similar. Phosphor and sulfur with the faintest amount of chocolate and springtime mixed in to it." Chris's voice got wistful and he got a longing look on his face.

Eric smiled and lay down. Chris was still hung up on the girl even after he heard she was dead. "What was Gwen like? I never met her." He asked.

It was true. Every time Eric had met Chris Gwen had been hidden away somewhere. Eric suspected Chris was being paranoid but he'd never objected to it. The female dragon-transformer could have been fragile and Chris was always possessive of his friends.

"She was … perfect. There's no other way to describe her. Gwen was ... strong, caring, gentle, always more concerned for me than herself, and she never objected to anything. She always smiled at me, her will never wavered, she told me when I was being a selfish butt munch, and she wasn't scared of me even when I almost killed her the first time she ran off on her own to get info. Gwen would hand me my ass on a golden platter if she thought I was being unreasonable." Chris stopped to glare at the vampire prince next to him.

At this point Eric was laughing like a hyena and rolling around on the floor. "A girl could kick your butt!" he gasped. Then he couldn't breathe from his laughter.

Chris gave him a look he'd picked up from Gwen. It was also recognizable as one of Hera's favorite looks. Chris threw his arms up in the air, hands in fists. "SHE COULD CAUSE EARTHQUAKES AND MAKE PLANTS ATACK ME OUT OF NO WHERE! GWEN MADE A TREE KEEP ME CAPTIVE FOR AN ENTIRE MONTH ONCE!" He yelled at the vampire.

This just made Eric laugh even harder than before. "D-d-d-dude, you're wimp!" He said tears gushing.

Chris waited for him to stop. "Better now?" He asked.

"You bet." Eric smiled and shook his head. "You're right though, that description does remind me faintly of Hera except for the smiling part. Hera rarely smiles at anyone, even Zanth. Well and the gentle part, Hera is not gentle."

A black Pegasus landed in front of them and neighed at them. _"Where's Hera gone off to this time? I swear that girl is more trouble than I'd like in my bonded vampire."_

Chris streaked and fell over the log. He scrambled backwards and sat there hyperventilating. Eric just looked at him and snorted.

"Nightshade, good to see you. I have no idea where Hera is, all I know is she's blowing off some steam. Chris, this is Nightshade Hera's bonded animal, Nightshade, this is Chris Rider, he's new." Eric explained.

Nightshade trotted forward and sniffed Chris. _"Hey there nice to meet you. You have amnesia right. Quite… blanketed, too. Professional job I suspect." _She said.

It was a couple more seconds before Chris realized why the voice sounded familiar to him. The voice of Nightshade was speaking directly into his head like Saffron used to and the unusually ruff but sweet voice soothed him slightly. The question of how the horse could talk still stood though.

_"The shadow magic allows us to talk to vampires and humans."_ Nightshade said. Chris looked at her weird. Could she read his mind? _"You're new it's the first question anyone ever asks about us."_ She laughed and tossed her main lightly.

"Don't tease people, Nightshade. You know that Shadowfire hates it when you do." Eric said. He glared at Nightshade and she glared back. "I'll call him if you're not careful."

Nightshade blew air out her nose as she lowered her head and pawed at the ground. _"You wouldn't even dare."_ She said. Nightshade took then trotting steps and jumped into the air. She rose into the air and disappeared over the trees.

* * *

"So your best friend was a dragon-transformer?" The blue haired girl asked as she drank from her cup. She was sitting on a table on the center common as Chris leaned against said table.

Chris smiled happily. He liked this girl. She was only in grade school but she was pretty smart and controlled water.

"Hmmm. Gwen Diana correct. The last of the first family in the Diana line. Interesting. Oops, Shouldn't have let that little detail slip!" The girl yelped and covered her mouth as her eyes started to gleam in intrigue.

Chris backed up as the girl stood and fled. "What was that?" He asked no one in particular.

Zanthia giggled at him. "That would be, Aqua. She's our scholar and resident watermancer. She's also one of the original four. Don't let her bother you too much and if she doesn't stop call me or Eric. Aqua can get a bit carried away sometimes. Oh and don't piss her off, it'll take an eternity to calm her down." Zanthia sighed and rubbed her forehead.

"What's the Diana line?" Chris asked curious.

A brown haired boy walked over and inclined his head to the rider and the human. "Sorry about Aqua. Princess Zanthia, may I explain?" He asked. The new vampire had an accent that sounded faintly Italian and something else.

"Go right ahead, Frey. Just stop calling me princess." Zanth said as she turned to leave. This resulted in her crashing into Eric's chest.

"Hmm." Eric purred as Zanthia blushed into his chest. He grinned, fangs at their full length, and sniffed above Zanth's hair.

She took three quick steps backwards face bright red and eyes panicked. "You can't be Hungry I fed you-" Zanthia counted on her fingers "- thirty days ago. Oh, sugar." She said and walked backwards rapidly.

Chris watched in shock as Eric, who was not wearing a shirt, slink forward managing it use every single one of his upper body in the process. He looked like a big cat stalking his prey. Zanth just looked terrified out of her mind.

"What is it, delectamenti? You liked it last time I bit you." He said.

"That was the effects of the venom and don't call me delicious in Latin! How do you know Latin anyway? I never taught you!" Zanthia yelled back.

Eric smirked and grabbed Zanth's arm. He yanked her into his arms and slung her over his shoulder. "You called me it last time." Eric said.

Zanth's face went bright red and she shrieked. "I DID WHAT? WAIT, WHAT! NO! PUT ME DOWN SILVER DAMN IT!" Her voice was muffled when Eric closed the door to his room behind him but didn't fade completely.

Frey decided it was time for a distraction. "The Diana line consists of three families that are completely compatible with each other in every way. The Diana's are the line with pure dragon-transformer DNA, the Rider family are all dragon riders as you well know, and finally the royal family of angels can't fall in love with anyone not from any of the three families. They're also strong in magical power and if they get turned it only increases their power." Frey said and grabbed Chris's arm.

Chris started and stared at the hand on his wrist. Frey sighed and pulled him into the center of the common were the skylight was. "Come on we need to get you food. Eric and Hera will both have a field day if you pass out or die from lack of nourishment." He said and the two of them lifted into the air.

Chris's eyes went wide and he yelped. Frey just chuckled as they reached the top of the sky light.


	5. Chapter 4 - Hera's First Angel Hug

Chapter 4

I let myself melt out of the sensation of the warm blanket Light had given me as I woke up. It was weird how much that boy trusted me.

Slowly I rolled out of the blanket and into the shadows. The shadow world was an exact replica of the human one except without the humans. There are shadows instead.

"Now where is Light?" I said. I really had no idea why I wanted to talk to the wingless angel but it seemed like a good idea.

On his own he probably smelled good too. … WAIT! WAIT! WAIT! WHAT DID I JUST SAY!? ANGEL'S DID NOT SMELL GOOD! Okay. Okay. It's just my brain being weird. Right? Right.

Slowly I let my power spread outwards to envelope the entire castle as I searched for Light's shade. There he was, in the eastern most room of the castle that overlooked a garden.

Out of curiosity I touched the shades of the animals and plants there. I gasped as they spoke of Light. Of how he cared for the injured and helped their weak. How he tended the garden before dawn and just after dusk every day.

I shivered at their happiness. I tore myself away from the shades and instantly pulled myself into the real world in front of Light. Now I really couldn't kill him, my shades would hate my guts.

I raised my head, opened my eyes, and everything was instantly driven from my head. Light was in front of me blushing as I looked him over. I was too hungry to blush so my mouth just unhinged itself. "Ah, oops. Sorry." I said and shadow melded two feet to the left.

I'd just seen Light in a shower. With the water turned on. Completely naked. OH SHIT! Well that just ruined my completely and utterly impartial thoughts towards Light! I'd just seen him naked for Silver's sake!

"Um. Th-the d-door over there l-leads to my bedroom." Lights hesitant tone broke me from my absorption in my thoughts.

Slowly I walked to the door in question and opened it slowly. His bedroom was large but not extremely so. Half of it was taken up by a four poster king sized bed and a nightstand that held nothing but a lamp. On the far end there was a large window and next to the bathroom was a small closet door.

I skipped over and flopped down on the bed happily, it was so soft. It smelled good, more than good actually. I flipped and turned over onto my stomach to press my nose into the sheets and in hailed. The sheets were made but mildly mussed where Light had sat down on them.

I felt my fangs extend and I moaned as my hunger hit me full force. His sent was a mixture of the lightness I recognized as sunlight, mangos, flowers, and most of all ozone. I shivered and tore myself away from the scent. Light emerged from the bathroom and I turned to him.

He was wearing nothing but a pair of jeans and a towel on his hair. Frantically I tried not to move anywhere but away from temptation I went for the window.

Light was faster and he tackled me. Even in my weakened state I was stronger and won the grappling match that ensued. Lights wrists were over his head pinned under one of my hands and I threw my hips over him to trap his waste under my body.

I was sitting on him panting when I realized how skinny he was. Light was blushing again as I scanned his shirtless frame. I could see his ribs and his stomach had sunk inwards. His arms were muscular -but still way too thin- and that was the only reason I hadn't noticed it earlier. I inhaled sharply and I let go of his wrists as I skimmed my other hand over his ribs.

"Don't you eat?" I asked. Was he anerexic or something? That made no sense the shades said he ate. Bulimia then?

Light gave a bark of laughter and I rolled off of him in shock. That laugh sounded slightly insane.

"Why would you care you're just a vampire?" Light said bitterly. He rolled up in one fluid motion and stood over me. Submissively I turned my neck so that my eyes were on the floor and my neck was arched towards Light. I had no idea why I was doing it but my reactions were always a bit softer around Light.

"Why would anyone care about what happens to me I'm useless! I can't fly or capture a human's mind! I'm not exceedingly beautiful!" My eyes went wide. Oh an inferiority complex lovely. This was a long standing argument. "To top all that off I have a conscience! I can't willingly feed off of the cells! I can't feed off of anything! I don't want to even try! And you know what! I'm actually proud of myself because it means at least one less person in those Gold forsaken cells!" Light yelled.

Ah there was the problem, it's a new one but I could deal with it. He was crying now. I didn't move as he sat down on the edge of his bed and put his head in his hands. He let out a long racking sob.

That was when I moved, slowly and carefully I got up. It was only onto my knees but I could crawl forward and stay low. Light watched my progress threw his fingers as I got closer and closer to him.

I reached the bed and quick as a flash grabbed Light in a fast hug. Then I let the ball of pure rage in my chest go. Light screamed into my shoulder as I force feed him my anger and rage and the pain of holding it in all this time. He struggled to get out of my embrace shouting for me to stop but I could feel his body getting stronger and slowly, by inches, he stopped fighting it.

Light was still in my arms for a second and then he yanked me over onto the bed on top of him. 'Uh-oh. Now you've done it, Hera, you know how easy feeding can turn into sex. Now you have to deal with it.' My brain said.

Luckily for me Light hadn't rolled me yet and I kept him pinned underneath me. Unfortunately for me he was sucking on my neck which was too distracting for its own good.

The thing with vampires is the fact that our necks are extremely sensitive and the only thing you needed to do to get our full attention is brush your mouth over the large artery there. I ripped myself away from him and his mouth made a faint popping sound that made me shiver and things inside me tighten.

'Why is that so DAMN SMEXY?!' I thought to myself. Light fully feed now was slightly less strong than me but it was still hard for me to keep the half-starved angel in check as I slammed my guard up around me.

I'd seen what happened with Zanth and Eric when he feed off of her and I so didn't want that to happen here. I still needed to take my brain to the cleaners after that "incident" occurred. "LIGHT! SNAP OUT OF IT!" I screamed in his face.

My inner demon poked her head from her cage to help me with this. Light jerked as my inner demon shone through to snarl at him and then he was normal Light again.

"What just happened?" He asked. My breathe let out in a long sigh and I collapsed on Lights chest happy that nothing had really been done.

He smelled nice, better than any angel I'd ever met/killed in battle. Light pushed me off so that I was lying on his bed and he could sit up.

"You just feed me." Light said. He sounded shocked and grateful. It was all rushing back into his head at once by the sound of his slow voice. But I was too tired to care.

"Yeah, can't have my only friend in this place dying on me can I?" I said. As fast as I could I clapped my hand over my mouth horrified with myself for saying what I was thinking.

I wasn't like this! I never talked like this with people! The only person who had gotten this close to me was my sister and she was dead. That sobered me up.

"Thank you." Light's whisper drew my attention. His face was bright crimson red and he had turned slightly so that he was leaning against one of the four posts surrounding the bed. He was staring at me with those deep blue eyes and I suddenly was very aware that I was sprawled on his bed with my shirt hiked up over my bra.

My very black, very tight, very revealing sports bra.

I sat up with the grace of a newborn fowl and yanked my shirt down. The fabric was not designed for my supernatural strength and it tore down the center. I cursed loudly and Light chuckled at me.

"This is my only shirt!" I yelled at him. Light stopped laughing and got closer to my face. His sent washed over me in a maddening wave.

My breathing stopped and then my inner demon took over. I had Light pinned under me and my head struck like a snake. I drank feverishly at his neck before I realized what the heck I was doing.

"Hera!" Light moaned. That one word and the bucking of his body as his desire flowed outwards was enough to snap me back into my own head. Slowly I retracted my fangs and crawled away from Light's prone form.

I kept going until I felt my back hit a wall and I curled into a tiny ball waiting for the first blow. It would come and my trust of Light would vanish and then he'd be the enemy and I'd kill him without mercy. I'd done it before and it had happened to me before. I didn't want it happening with Light.

"Damn, girl. What the heck do you have in that venom of yours?" He asked. It was the second time Light had asked me that question of me. Slowly I raised my head to see that the idiot had a goofy grin on his face and he was staring at me.

I shook my head and uncurled from the fetal position I had assumed. Swirling the shadows around Light and tugging on them slightly I managed to pull him over to me.

"I already told you that it's a powerful neurotoxin. I don't know exactly what it is but I do know that it hurts like hell if you fight it." I said. Light showed absolutely no resistance as I tilted his neck sideways to examine my bite mark and licked the wound as gently as possible.

He actually purred when I ran my thumb over the two rapidly closing puncture wounds. It was as if he was in love with me or something. Nah it was probably just the afterglow from what had just happened to him.

"You should be fine. Lucky I'm not contagious or anything." I muttered the last bit so he wouldn't hear. No one needed to know that there was the occasional vamp that bit the person they loved and ended up turning them by accident.

It was a highly resesive gene but there were still one or two vamps who were born with a whole boat load of traits that shouldn't even exist anymore. Like Frey who was so allergic to the sun he had to sleep underground in the actual dirt.

Some Turns like me got random traits as well. For example my blood couldn't feed a full blood vampire and I had to feed more often than most bloodsuckers. The latter was why I'd only been here for a week and had to feed again. Oh and about the former. I could feed halflings or Turns that had been angel, demon, a magic user, or were a lycanthrope before they were turned just not born vamps.

Also my saliva can heal which is weird as hell sometimes. Light hummed slowly and leaned his head on my shoulder with a tenderness reserved for parents and couples. I shook my head and sighed in sympathy mixed with some other feeling I didn't recognize.

Good grief this guy was so innocent it almost burned my sins away. Not that I believed in eternal punishment or anything it was just that the more I did to try and save my coven the heavier my heart became. It was to the point where if I wasn't angry I got so depressed that I couldn't even pull out the strength to move. So I converted most things into anger just to cope.

"Light! Open this door right now!" Shade's voice came through the door accompanied by a loud bang. Light growled and got up.

Quickly I surrounded my torso in liquid shadows and shoved my ruined shirt into the shadow world. Light was going to be paying for that shirt but right now it didn't really matter to me considering Light was opening the door.

I stood and walked over to stand slightly behind him. The girl was gaping at the now tiny marks on Light's neck. Shade looked over his shoulder at me and screamed. I growled in annoyance and stepped forward to whack her in the head.

"Idiot. If I wanted to kill him I would have done it a while ago when I bit him the first time. Will you get that through your thick angel skull?!" I spat at her. Shade blushed slightly at my sudden vehemence and stared at my face with wide eyed shock.

I rolled my eyes and walked back into Light's room. It was quite obvious that my wings were out and lying on top of my shadow shirt in all their glory. The right one was twinging painfully. I sighed and unfurled it trying to get the bone to shift back into it's proper place which it had turned out of. The Silver damned feathers were not helping me do this either.

Oh right I haven't told you about the feathers yet. I am indeed a vampire but for some odd reason when I was turned my wings decided to come out with black as shadow feathers on them. So they are less like a bat's wing and more like those of a crow or raven.

"Let me help with that." I heard Light say. His hands were against my wings in a hesitant motion. I purred slightly as he ran his hands threw the primary feathers and let the wing extend more. The skin holding the feathers was _really_ sensitive.

I was so off in la la land that I didn't even feel Light put the bone back into the proper place and my brain still wasn't registering things properly when he pulled me into a tight hug. Shade ruined the moment by gagging noisily. I jumped and for the first time in a really long time my face went bright red with embarrassment.

"U-um. L-l-l-light l-let go." I stammered out. I was not used to public displays of affection under any circumstances or any affection for that matter actually.

Being almost as strong if not stronger than the queen of all vampires sucks. No one comforts you when you're supposed to be really tough and could beat most people to a pulp. The odd thing is the fact that I'm so not comfortable in my own skin even though I'm extremely fit. All the not being able to touch anyone outside a fight must be getting to me or something.

Light looked down at my very red face and smiled happily. "You're blushing, Hera." He murmured. Then he let go of me and I stepped back so I could hide behind my wings.

Yeah, best shadow user in the world and strongest turned vampire. I may have to hand those two titles in now. I could see the tittle of that particular part of my official folder now. Weakness: Physical contact with humanoids outside battle.

Oh the amount of teasing I'd get from Zanthia alone would be monumental in and of itself. AARRGGGGGGGGGGG! My life sucks ass! So any who back to the conversation at hand.

I swept my wings back blush under relative control at the moment. "Dad wants to meet her." Shade said. She still looked semi-disgusted but she wasn't giving me a death glare which was a plus.

I wasn't naïve I knew she hated me but we could at least be civil to each other, in front of Light at least. I watched in the slightest pool of sympathy as all the color drained from Light's face and for the first time ever I heard Light swear. "SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!"


	6. Chapter 5 - Flashbacks

Chapter 5

"Shit." Chris said eyes bugging as he tasted the divine stew.

Frey chuckled at his antics and leaned down to nip at the spoon in the ex-rider's hand. Chris swatted at him.

Chris had been starving by the time Frey found some human food that wasn't the chocoalate that both Zanth and Hera hordid in droves. But he'd finally found some left over beef stew from Hera's last dinner and Chris had heated it up with a spell that a friend of his had made up a while ago.

Frey had a sneaking suspition that this boy was hiding something from him and he was going to find out what with a little vampire enginuity. "That would be Hera's cooking for you. She was human once and Zanthia – bless her perverted soul- can't cook for her life plus Hera loves human food hense the giant chocolate stash." Frey said.

Vampires need human food as well for the nutrition. Well, have you tried to live off of the fluids of someone else. It isn't enough to sustain any person's body for an extended period of time. But they had developed a vitamin that allows them to survive on only blood. It had all the essential nutriants needed. Hera didn't need it because she can survive on only blood naturally. Hera's turned powers included this for some reason no one could figure out.

Chris wolfed the stew down and sighed in contentment. The last time he'd had a meal like that had been when Gwen had managed to hunt down a wild elk single handed.

Oh Gwen. Chris's face fell and he started to shake slightly. Where was she? They had never found the body so she could still be alive. Right?

Things felt so bad and dark now. Chris was so out of his depth that it was almost comical, almost but not quite. Chris's eyes filled with tears and he almost let them brim over. That bright shining light of trust, hope, and unconditional love and friendship that Gwen gave him was no longer within his reach.

It was like being chained to the floor in a pitch black corridor with your only light and human contact walking away from you in slow persice steps that incressed your dread with ever second.

First Saffron had died and now Gwen too. Chris didn't think his sanity could take much more of this constant pounding…

_'The slight brown haired girl ran and ran and ran as the black haired boy chased her. The blue dragon fallowing shook her head in exasperation at her two human companions. The boy watched as the younger girl let scales ripple up her arms and wings sprung from her back. She jumped and finished her change in a down stroak._

_The boy stopped gasping for breath and glared at the green dragon flying over his head, laughing at him. "Hey ,Gwen, that's not fair! I can't fly!" He yelled shaking a fist at the female dragon. She just continued to laugh at him and swooped down._

_The boy just glared at the dragon and waited for her to grab him around the waste. Gwen grabbed him and signaled Saffron with a casual flick of her long brown tufted tail as she slung the boy over her shoulder so he could sit on her back._

"_I love you, too, Chris." The green dragon said in a joking voice. Chris's face went slightly pink but he ignored it and just lounged across Gwen's long serpentine neck eyes closed._

_Saffron snorted at her rider's niave and flew above and slightly behind the two humanoids. _'Oh get a room the both of you.'_ She said and dipped to nip at Gwen's tail. Gwen squealed and flicked the tip away from the larger adult dragon. She dived and banked attempting to get away from Saffron._

_What insued was some of the best flying Gwen had ever had and some of the worst cramps in history as she kept informing Chris who was as sympathetic as he could be. Gwen had managed to avoid Saffron's every attack and spent the rest of the day on her stumach letting Chris go after the cramps in her back were her wings would be if she were a dragon._

_That was about the time when the vampires showed up. A big one with huge bulging muscles pushed a growling Gwen to the ground and held her there. This was fairly rutean by now. Chris grabbed the cast iron frying pan and swung it at the vampire._

_There was a loud booming crack and the sound of a man's scream of pain. Chris dropped the frying pan mid-swing and grabbed his head in pain as other vampires pinned him to the ground. Saffron was chained to the ground and then…'_

Frey shook Chris gently and then pulled the nineteen year old rider's face around to look at him. Chris's sent had gone rather flat and dull for a moment there.

"Hey. Stop remembering the past. Life is for the living and you're the only hope for the covens right now. If you aren't able to move or talk you can't help with anything." He said. Chris let one of the tears fall down his cheek in defeat and he averted his eyes. He didn't want to relive his dragon's death but the memories were too strong for him to resist.

Frey frowned and grabbed Chris's arms so that he could gently pull the younger man from his seat at the table. This was not going as he had planned and it was making him want more contact with the innocent yet wise Rider that he had under his control. To Frey the thought of having a person who had bonded with those … those… those _things_ this close was repulsive.

Yet… Chris was different from the other dragonriders Frey had observed after their dragon was killed. He looked like his inner fire was desperately trying to assert itself over the raging grief inside the boy's body but Chris's emotions were overwhelming it's power in the pure hopelessness of the feelings inside of the rider.

Frey growled angrily and tipped the rider's face up to look at his. He _had_ to know why this dragonrider was so sane and why he was so different from the other dragonriders. Frey's eyes glowed faintly red as Chris stared into them. Chris felt like he was falling into a pool of blood and the rest of the memory overwhelmed him as Frey's mind crashed into his with full force to tug out the memory.

'_Amber clapped her hands sardonicly as she walked slowly towards Gwen and Chris as they tried to fight the guards. Her hair was a shade of hot pink that almost literally burned your eyes when you looked at it and her eyes were bright fresh blood red. They glowed as she stared at Chris, the tainted orbs filled with hunger._

"_Kill the dragon but leave the girl and Chris to me." Amber's voice had gone into a high hissing register and it sounded like she was trying to talk past liquid in her lungs. Chris screamed and struggled as a large man pulled Saffron's neck up. Gwen whimpered as Saffron tried to fight the chains binding her to the forest floor._

_Gwen gave a keen and bowed her head as Amber stroad forward and pulled Chris's head up so that it arched nicely just like Saffron's. Chris felt his strength dip and then the pain of a troat being slit ran threw him. His mouth opened as Amber bit down and he gave an utterly broken sound that was a kin to a scream but not quite at that point._

_Then power crashed over him and there was a shreak as Amber jumped away from him. Gwen was roaring in the voice of her dragon form and muscles began to underneath her skin. Chris exploded into a thousand fragments of power and then his limbs reshaped themselves into another form, a form that could kill the vampires around him._

_Gwen gave a yip of fear her shifting stopping with her hair in spikes and scrambled away from the huge red dragon when the vampires released her from their hold. Amber ran as the dragon persued her and then the memory faded away.'_

Frey let go of Chris stumbling back with a croak that would have made a toad envious. In a very unvampire like manner he tripped over a chair and sprawled on the floor still trying to get his berrings. He swept brown wings in front of him to hide himself from the dragonrider's pain. He had never felt pain that intence or that grief stricken. It still ached deep down in his bones and in the pit of his soul.

Chris just stood there staring at the slightly shaking vampire on the other side of the kitchen. Frey had pulled the bad memory out into the open with his mind as easily as a child could have pulled out a loose tooth, like it was an ouster. Slowly carefully Frey took a deep shaking breathe and folded his wings.

Chris's eyes went wide as he saw the tears coming out of Frey's wide bright brown eyes and trailing down his cheeks.

"I never knew it hurt th-that b-bad." He said trying to wipe the tears away as he stumbled over his words. Chris took a step forward and then another and another until he was standing over the still quite unstable vampire boy. He gently kicked the chair away and knelt on one knee so he could pull the boy into a hug.

Frey rapped both arms around the dragon riders waste, barried his head in the crook of Chris's neck, and completely broke down into a sobbing pool of mush under Chris's tenderness.

"I shouldn't have d-done that!" Frey sobbed. His extended fangs –braught on by the intese emotions- scraped Chris's throat and the rider went suddenly stiff under the sensation of teeth on skin.

Then something really, really weird happened to both of the boys on the kitchen floor. Their minds opened and crashed together in a melting pot of memories and emotions.

'_A girl was digging threw piles of wood trying to get to what ever was underneath. It was eight year old Gwen…_

_A red haired girl ran ahead of them threw the fire. The boys screamed in terror as one of the beams that supported the house crashed down in front of them. A woman screamed…_

_There were three loud cracks and the pain was suddenly gone. The boys stared as a very angry Gwen stepped into their peripheral vision. She was older but still looked like a child._

_Gwen stepped forward holding what looked like a metal devise with both hands. She placed a delicately sliperred foot on the vampire's stumach and fire the rest of the gun –the name was provided by Chris- into it's chest._

_Her hair was long and tied back in a not at the base of her neck. Gwen's long dress was black and in taters. But she still looked hot as hell. "Nobody touches my dragonrider. NOBODY." She growled.'_

Frey leaned back away from the dragon rider and stare at him. "That's … new." He said.

Then they broke down laughing at the impossibility of it all.


	7. Chapter 6 - don't wake the beast

Chapter 6

We walked into the throne room and I just knew this wasn't going to end well. For one I was in handcuffs and being dragged by two extremely muscular angel guards while Light looked apologetically at me.

For another there was a man that looked like Light but older and washed out sitting on the throne sneering down at everyone. His hair fell to his hips instead of being cropped at his shoulders too. That rankled me.

Why did he deserve to sit up there acting like a god when there were people dying to satisfy his hunger and others being forced to fallow his rule? Hell yeah I have problems with authority. Quite a few problems, actually.

Eric was fine; I obeyed him out of respect for his skills and the way he let everyone take part in decisions regarding the entire coven. Other people of authority acted like it was there birth right or something and it thoroughly pissed me off.

Oh, and the last thing that sealed the deal, I could smell Ash's blood all over the carpet we were walking on.

My eyes were glowing. I didn't have to see them to know that it was true and I knew I was just emanating pissed off in waves that rolled of my body in droves. Every angel in the room was looking at me with a mix of pure longing and hunger that had absolutely nothing to do with sex what so ever.

The anger I was giving off was probably the best meal they've ever seen considering such a tiny dose of it was making Light shine like a fiery beacon on a clouded winter night. They were all dressed in bright colors and they radiated beauty from every single one of their pores.

That was one of the things that urcked me about angels, they were the most beautiful things alive but they all used it to cause people pain. My gaze burned holes in their heads when I looked at them and then my gaze landed on Light. If these were different circumstances and I didn't know better I would never think Light was an angel.

I would have thought that he was a vampire or at the very least human. He wasn't so blinding that it hurt, in fact it was more a comforting warm glow like that of a candle flame. The one thing that would have given him away -his scent- wasn't even close to that of the other angel's in the room. The weirdest thing was the fact that all of the angels didn't give the boy a second glance and instead blatantly ignored him.

Once I noticed this it added to my anger fuelling the fire inside of my gut and making my eyes glow even brighter than before. Light was better than all of them combined and-

… What.

The.

Fuck? Why was I even thinking that? I mean Light seemed to be my friend but I wasn't this overprotective.

I wasn't even this protective of Zanthia and I'd known her most of my life. I hadn't been this protective of Ash or even … _her_. So, why was I this protective of Light, I barely knew him for Silver's sake. But then again he was odd for an angel and I felt like I knew him. Plus I'd bitten him twice so there was that to consider.

But anyway for some unknown reason I was thoroughly pissed that Light had to wear that fake smile on his face in front of those angels instead of a real smile. Come to think of it I hadn't seen him smile yet. Well except for that small one he gave me when he hugged me but that didn't really count in my opinion. That had been so short and small that if I blinked I would have missed it.

When I looked at the king I saw a cruel smile plastered over his face, nothing like Light's soft one. He was looking at me like he wanted to devour me and it was giving me an extreme case of ants under my skin.

"So this is the Hera Olympia I've been hearing about." The angel on the thrown said. His voice sounded like the tinkling of a thousand bells with a smooth poisonous edge to it. I gave a sub-audible growl and gave him a look to set forest fires. My wings stirred on my back, wanting to unfurl in a sign of irritation and pure unpolluted anger.

"Pretty for a vampire. Not the best looking of specimens though." The king said. Oh he did _not_ just say that.

I saw Light's smile become even more forced and his hands tightened into fists. The King snapped his fingers and Shade slowly walked past the guards head down. That was weird. Shade was proud yet now she looked like a dog that had been kicked one too many times. Her hands were knotting and unknotting in her skirt while she shook. Shade's steps were no longer precise but quick short and panicky. Her shoulders were slumped further than mine normally were. Even her eyes were different, glancing from side to side looking for any treat or… help.

All this girl wanted was help. She wanted out of whatever was going on right now. I watched the smirking angels and my hatred for the entire species grew ten-fold. They should be helping Shade not enjoying her plight. Even the youngest angels of only about ten were watching with eager eyes as Shade moved forward towards the throne.

She hesitated about a foot away and then the king did the unforgivable. The king shot an arm forward and grabbed Shade's arm. Then he yanked her onto his lap and started to kiss along her neck. Light's smile turned into a slight snarl and my inner demon screeched loud enough for Frey to hear her.

"So much like her mother." The king said. Shade had her eyes shut tight and she was whimpering deep down in her throat. The king drew back and slapped her hard enough for her head to snap to the side. The sound of skin on skin reverberated through the room and echoed in my heart. "Too bad she's a vampire Halfling bitch." The venom in the king's voice snapped something inside of me.

Every angel in the room snapped their heads around to stare at me. The waves of anger had become tangible as the shadows in the room answered to my call. My common sense started yelling at me but that was drowning in the shrieks of 'Kill the dirty Bastard! Kill him NOW!' coming from my inner demon. So I politely told my common sense to shove it up her ass and lowered my gaze to the carpet under my feet.

I clenched my fists so hard my claws drew blood and clenched my jaw so hard that my teeth creaked slightly. This was going to be a problem. If I shed my second skin and let my true form out a lot of things would start to happen all at once and none of them would be good for me. _At all_.

Then I heard the softest whimper in the entire world and my power of will and self-control completely and utterly shattered into a thousand and one tiny little pieces. My anger and hate and pent up aggression all hit it's max and my inner demon took over for me. Music exploded into the air and my cuffs broke in half. Every angel in the room took a step back and my wings snapped open with a loud whoosh.

"_Let go of the Halfling, King."_ My demon said threw my mouth. She was so not happy with the situation at hand. My demon crossed our arms and cocked her hip to the right while drawing up into our full height to glare across the room at the angels on the thrown. I heard Light gasp and I could smell his admiration on the air, so could my demon but she read it as something different. I mentally hit her and my body winced. _"Alright, alright, you didn't have to hit me so hard, Hera." _She muttered.

That was when the guards finally registered that we were no longer hand cuffed and went for their swords in an instant. We both laughed in amusement and jumped into the air as the first sword came at us. Every angel in the room gasped as my inner demon used my body to the peck of fighting perfection. She was better at using my vampire form than I was even if I was the one who had been born in it and she hadn't. I was still the slightest bit bitter about it but I'd get over it … eventually.

Anyway we kicked one guard hard and landed rolling out of the way of the arrows. We came to our feet a few feet away and turned to launch ourselves at the rest of the guards. There were only four guards left.

"OUT OF THE WAY!" One of them yelled and pushed Light to the side. Our eyes went wide as Light tripped over his own feet and fell onto his rear end.

My inner demon lost it. Our vision went pure red and she launched us at the guards.

"_Call my man again and I'm a…"_

Punch to the jaw.

Knee in the sternum.

"_Fuck you up. And I'm a Fuck you up."_

Whirl.

Elbow to the jaw.

Jump over a sword swing from behind.

"_Touch my man again and I'm a…"_

Land on shoulders.

Grab head.

Twist off of neck.

Lung.

Berry fangs in a throat.

"_Fuck you up. And I'm a Fuck you up."_

Rip the windpipe out.

Turn.

Dash for the thrown.

"_ELEMENTA!"_

Sword in right hand.

Grab girl. Pull her aside.

Stand on arm rests.

Raise sword above head.

"_This is for my sister and soul." _Bring the blade down.

"HERA! STOP!" A yell? From who?

Pause. Turn.

LIGHT!

* * *

I watched as the girl who had been Hera just a minute ago turned to look at him and the sword stopped just above my father's heart.

"Calm down. Me and Shade are going to be just fine." I said.

Hera was covered in blood and it was like both her eyes had been swallowed by purest gold. Hera had black tattoos swirling down from both eyes and across her jaw. I'd never seen a vampire's inner demon before but this was definitely Hera's inner self.

Shade was staring at her in complete and utter hero worship. This was the first time since the first time that I had ripped father away from her that anyone had tried to save her from the king.

Trying to keep my breathing and heart as calm as possible I took a step forward. Every angel in the room stared at me as I got closer and closer to the girl standing over my father. The sword in Hera's hands started to evaporate into thin air as she stared at me.

Slowly I extended my arms towards her and smiled at her. The smile was fake and Hera knew it. Her eyes were sad as she looked at me. In truth I was terrified of my father killing her or torturing her until she broke.

"_You're scared of us?"_ Hera asked. The sword vanished and her shoulders sagged. The depression hit me in a wave and my eyes went wide.

What the- Why hadn't I sensed this before?! The depression was so thick and dark it was almost tangible! My heart felt like it was going to drop out of my chest.

Every angel in the room gasped as I slowly exposed my neck and stared at the ground out of the corner of my eye. "I am not scared of you. I'm terrified that you're making a very bad chose right now." I said slowly. Hera was shaking and I could feel the grief well up into her throat. "Come here, Hera." I said in the softest voice possible.

She took a deep breath and turned around. Then in a blast of speed she was hugging herself to my chest, claws digging into my back. I didn't care. All that mattered was that her entire being had opened up and I suddenly a part of her like I'd never been a part of anyone ever before.

Slowly I placed my arms around her waist and rocked her gently. "It'll all be okay. You're going to be fine. It will all be alright if you're here with me." I whispered so that no one else could hear. Hera burrowed further into my collarbone and an overwhelming feeling of piece came over me.

"GET HER! PUT HER IN A FEEDER CELL!" The spell was suddenly broken when my father yelled those words.

Hera screeched in an inhuman voice and her grief and sadness turned to anger in a flash.


	8. Chapter 7 - I Hate Your Guts, Ran

Chapter 7

Hera's inhuman scream made everyone's hair stand on end. She pushed Light away from her and back peddled furiously, tattoos fading from existence as her eyes went back to normal. All weakness gone, all doors to her soul shut and locked. The key to her heart once more retreating deep inside the angry vampire female as she turned and charged the king.

Elementa was once more in her hand. Its blade flashing different colors as Hera raised it one handed. The sapphire of the pummel glinted and both the emerald and garnet set in the cross guard flashed from the white steel as the sword's mistress swung. The damage was not immediately apparent, so clean was the cut the female had made.

But as Hera stood and turned to look at the crowd blood started to seep from the angel king's neck. The still pissed off girl planted her blade and the king's head fell off. Only then did the angel's notice that the king's blood was not the healthy cherry red of almost all humanoids. Instead it was black, black like pitch and grey, grey like a storm cloud about to break over their heads.

"I really hate when people get turned into shadonary. It just makes them more crazy than they already were." Hera said voice clean, crisp, and matter of fact.

A laugh like the tinkling of a thousand hand bells mixed with the sound of rain on metal sounded throughout the great hall. Everyone stared as a girl almost identical to Hera in every way materialized in the canter of the carpet on the exact spot Ash had died. Her hair was long and pulled into two ponytails on either sides of her head and her eyes were mismatched one black, one grey but other than that they could have been twins. She wore a short dress just an inch too high to show a bra and just one more too low to show the top of her stockings. There was a cape laid over her back and all of it was dark grey. Mist of the same color rolled of her flecked with black and crawled towards the angel's on either side of her. They all backed up as one. The girl grinned so that every one of her pointed teeth were showing

_"Why must you always kill my most amusing pets, Hera?"_ The girl said pouting.

Hera's face contorted in disgust and she almost gagged. Then she smiled pleasantly as she walked down the daises steps "Ran, you are a disturbed power-crazed little bitch." Her voice was smooth and deceptively pleasant as she moved towards the other girl. "Why would I ever obey you? You are nothing but a conduit for the darkness which is not darkness, when I talk to you all I get is puppet not a person. And like a puppet you seek what makes us what you are not."

The dark mist rose like the hackles of a dog would and lashed out. Hera jumped to avoid the power and pirouetted mid-air wings giving one strong down stroke to lift her into the air. At the same time Light reacted purely on instinct and threw his magic at Ran in a wave of power. No prowess, no spells, no thought, no skill, no practice, just pure undeniable light and power.

Ran screamed as it hit her own magic and traveled along it like a blazing wildfire. She cut the power off and the light returned to its master. Hera hovered in the air wondering what to do. It was obvious that Ran had been hurt but nothing could harm anti-darkness except… except… except…

Hera's eyes went wide with realization and she folded her wings, dropping to the floor in a crouch. "Sunlight, Ran. You can't go up against a being that can control the very thing that could destroy you with just the slightest touch, can you now?" She said grinning.

_"You got lucky this time, Olympia's daughter, I can't wait until next time. Then I get the most powerful vampire and dragon tamer alive as a pet!"_ Ran said giggling as she faded from existence.

The vampire girl's rage flared and she lunged at the other girl. "DON'T YOU DARE MENTION THAT MAN'S LAST NAME! I AM NO DAUGHTER OF HIS! I AM NOT YOUR PET!" she streaked. Claws grew over her fingernails and Hera brought her hand down. All she caught was mist and shadow. Or rather mist and a burning furious anti-darkness. It ran across her hand like liquid and Hera screamed.

She stumbled back hissing in anger. The anti-darkness let go reluctantly and left a red burn were it had touched the shadow wielder's skin. "Damn her!" She spat voice weak.

Elementa disappeared into thin air and Hera's eyes rolled back into her head. Her body hovered for a few minutes and then she collapsed onto the floor. There was complete silence for about 2.5 seconds and then someone screamed.

When I woke up I was back in my cell and my skin itched! Luckily for me it didn't itch everywhere just on my thighs. But that was normal shadonary were a high level form of dragon rider after all and dragon rider's made my skin crawl. The power residue was probably what was causing the annoying itch.

* * *

I yawned. This bed was not as comfortable as I remembered it being. I shifted and my skin scratched along cobblestones. My eyes flew open and I found myself on a feeder cell floor.

Oh shit.

…..I have got to be the _**MOST**_ idiotic excuse for a vampire in the history of the world. I mean who else would be idiotic enough to kill the king of the angels right in front of the entire angel population. I am in so-_oo_ much trouble. Okay, Hera, get a hold of yourself it's not like you can't escape any time soon.

Slowly I sat up still half asleep. I was not an evening person. This was the reason why when Shade crawled up to me and poked my arm I squealed.

I do _not _squeal. Under no circumstances what so ever have I ever squealed. Never in my entire life have I squealed. Screamed like bloody murder, yes. Bellowed like a dragon with a broken wing, also a yes. But squealed, no, never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever.

But now I had squealed and quite loudly I might add. The look on my face must have been pretty priceless because Shade smiled. It was a real smile too and it reminded me of Light's brief smile even though they only looked vaguely similar. It had the same emotions behind it.

"Hey." Shade muttered shyly. "I wanted to know if you had met my father."

My heart rate sank to that of a rabbit instead of that of say a mouse or a cheetah. I sighed and took a deep breathe. "It is possible but most of the vampires I know hate my guts." I said.

Shade got this look of total hero worship on her face and I gulped. No one besides _her_ had ever looked at me like that before. It was so wrong and at the same time so right all at the once. Shade acted at least partially how _she_ had and they looked similar in a weird way. They had the same eyes at least, green like grass and snapping like fire. The hair was different though it was golden like Light's was instead of brown.

"Who's your dad then?" I asked. My heart was finally calm.

"My mom said his name was Frey." She said. I swear my face went ten different shades of white before it settled on chalk white.

Firstly, before you all have a giant hissy fit Frey may look like he's only about twenty years old but he's a sleeper. He's actually almost as old as Aqua is and she's at least four hundred, at the least. Secondly, he was in a coma for most of his life and only woke up about twenty four years ago. Thirdly, he'd known my father and hated his guts. Oh that boy had a lot of explaining to do.

"No wait! That was his rival!" She said. Oh no. I braced for the worst. "His name was Scott Olympia." And there it was the worst.

I face palmed. Now I saw the similarities between how we looked. She had my build. Her eyebrows and nose were so similar that it was scary. How could I not have noticed it earlier? She had to be related to me.

It was possible that dad had snuck off to have a tryst in the woods while we were asleep. Actually I remember one such incident disgustingly vividly. There was no denying it now. Shade was related to me. One last thing though, just to double check.

"Did you have a still born twin?" I asked.

"Yeah. How did you know?" Shade said. I felt my stomach drop like a lead weight had been placed inside of it.

"Because, Scott Olympia was my father. The children he had were always born in twins and one of them is always still born. You're my half-sister. And he wasn't a vampire, he was a dragon rider." I said while staring at the floor. Shade gasped in shock.

Then it occurred to me that we were both sitting in a feeder cell in the dungeon of the angel citadel having a civil conversation. It was almost laughable. I glanced at the door. It was wide open and there was a real live healthy dragon sitting in the doorway staring at us. It was little more than a hatchling and the hide was a beautiful shade of yellow. I looked from it to Shade and back.

Then as my eyes settled back on Shade I looked at her arm. At the elbow joint was a dragon with its tail in its mouth and its yellow scales was the same shade as the hatchling was. "Dragons grow extremely quickly. How long do you think it would take for the king or Light or any other angel in this place to figure out that you are a true rider?" I asked.

Shade turned a lovely shade of tomato red and I must admit she looked cute like that. And I am aloud to think that because she is my sister. If a boy had thought that it would have been creepy as hell.

"I don't know I didn't think." She whispered. My eyes softened around the edges and I chuckled. I needed to get my half-sister out of here right now or we might have to explain why she and a dragon were down here to the pointed end of a spear.

"It's okay. Now if you'll excuse me you need to get packed so you can get your dragon out of here and I need to have a word with your brother." I said. Shade nodded vigorously and stood. The dragon came bounding into the room and jumped into her arms.

The clothes she was wearing were dark perfect for night travel and they looked comfortable. The outfit consisted of a dark purple tank top made of cotton and silk. Plus what looked like dark blue yoga pants. Add to that her tied back hair and you had one Halfling who looked ready to go on the run. I thoroughly approved of this and of the small dagger I could see hiding in the edge of her bra under her armpit. Vampire eyesight. What can I say?

Shade nodded and was gone out the cell door and down the hall in a flash. I smiled; she even took orders like _she_ had, immediately and without question if it was someone she trusted. I shook the nostalgia off and shadow-melded as fast as I could.

I appeared next to Light's bed arms crossed over my chest. He lay there like one of those Christi-what's-it-called stereotypical angels that were all good and just fallen from heaven. Light's eyes were closed gently, his eyebrows furrowed slightly in a frown as his head turned slightly to the right in some dream. He lay on his back one arm thrown up beside his head while the other lay across his blanket covered stomach. His breathing was easy through slightly parted lips. The look of innocent naivety was perfectly constructed in this small space and it made me smile.

It made me sad as well. Very few people were this innocent to look at these days. I'd thought Ash and _her_ had been the last of those people who held it around them like it was their very skin. But in angel's citadel, in the very lion's den I'd found another just like them and he was a boy and perfect in every way.

I knew now that I would eventually have to kill him, that I'd have to snuff out that comforting light that this boy took for his name sake. I didn't want to do that. I hoped I wouldn't be the one to swing that sword or bare my fangs or any other way of execution that the vampire queen might choose. For the first time in a long time I didn't think I would be able to do it.

Sighing I climbed onto the bed and shook Light's shoulder. His eyes snapped open and he stared at me with fear in his eyes. My heart dropped to my feet. I hated scaring people like this. Slowly I got up the cruelty to do what had to be done. When he tried to sit up I grabbed his shoulders and pushed them down into the mattress while I put one leg on either side of my prey.

"Hera, let go! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Light yelled. I hissed in annoyance as the boy started to struggle under me. A growl rose to his lips and he bared his teeth at me. Oh-hooooooo, he did not just do that.

This was turning into a battle for dominance as I easily kept the boy pinned underneath me. "I'm saying good bye you idiot. Oh and getting a meal to go." I added the second sentence almost as an after-thought. "Think of this as a parting gift." I smiled cruelly down at him while I cried on the inside.

The angel boy stared up at me in horror. I opened my mouth and was on Light's throat in a flash. I focused on the taste this time trying to find even the tiniest trace of nastiness or anti-darkness in his blood.

Instead of being sour and bitter the boy's blood tasted sweet. I wasn't entirely sure of what I had been expecting but this wasn't it. Light's blood tasted like fruit fresh off the vain, of rain, of beaches at sunset. He tasted of power and weaknesses in one perfect package. There was summer and spring and the autumn harvests. Traces of sunlight and cool shade danced on my tongue as I swallowed the potent powerful concoction.

Finally after I was sure Light was very close to passing out it ripped my fangs free from his neck. Licking my teeth clean I leaned close to Light's ear. "You are mine and will always be mine. I mark you and bind you as such." I whispered and vanished into the shadows.

It was only then that I let myself scream out in anger and despair. I'd only meant to cast a protective spell and then sever the bond forming between us. I hadn't done that. In fact I had gone a bit naïve myself and done something I reeeally shouldn't have.

Gulping I resurfaced next to Shade at the main gate. I couldn't tell anyone about what I'd just done or even hint at it so I just smiled at the girl with the travel pack. I jerked my head towards the sky and we both took off.

Why had I done that? It was sacred between soul mates. I'd only known Light for about a week and he was an angel. Plus I didn't think I had a soul mate. But then why had the spell worked, I could feel Light in my head and he hurt.

Why had I bonded to him? I hadn't meant to do it. So why had I done it? More importantly how had it worked?

A long time ago I had accepted that I would never have a soul mate. My true form was just too deadly for humans, vampires, weres, or demons to handle. It was hard for me to handle in fact. Only a dragon tamer could really handle what I had to bring to the table.

Diana, Odanin, and Olympia were the only dragon tamer lines there had ever been. Diana was few in number and Chris was just too entwined in Gwen's life to be my mate. The only Olympia's left were me and Shade, and my own sister couldn't be my soul mate it just didn't happen. Lastly was the Odanin line.

As far as Aqua and I could figure the Odanin line died out about a hundred years ago with Hillary Odanin who married some second in line angel prince. She had given birth to one son and died in child birth. The son had been eighteen when he died a bachelor from some strain of anti-fever. He'd been quite the playboy in life but never sired a child; he lost interest in the girls he captivated too quickly for things to escalate to that.

Why had it worked?

"Hey, Hera! Where are we going?" Shade yelled at me.

I glanced over at her smiling. It had been a long time since I'd flown in open air and having someone there with you made it a whole lot better. I rolled leisurely over and glided on my back. "We're going to my coven." I said.

Shade frowned. "Won't they attack me?" She said.

"No. Most of us are actually halflings and having another dragon rider will help a lot." It was easy to see the tension dissolve from Shade in an instant. It would be good to have her around. Chris would like to have another dragon rider around that he can train himself. It'll cheer us all up….

I think.


End file.
